


of broken hearts and better days

by NaomiLeyers



Series: the one with all the marriage proposals [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Past Abuse, Past/Implied Ramsay Bolton/Theon Greyjoy, Post - Red Wedding, Resurrected Robb Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:07:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28259706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaomiLeyers/pseuds/NaomiLeyers
Summary: “I am real,” he says. “And I am not going to kill you.”“You should hate me,” Theon says into his shoulder.“I know,” Robb agrees. “But it seems I am horrible at doing things I should.”
Relationships: Theon Greyjoy/Robb Stark
Series: the one with all the marriage proposals [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070186
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	of broken hearts and better days

**Author's Note:**

> nothing belongs to me, except plot, all character belongs to GRRM, all mistakes are my own and I really hope this finds you all well <3

The truth is Robb has absolutely no idea how he managed to survive the Red Wedding. (Years from now he is going to ask the Red Priestess and she will look almost sorry, as she explains to him a life can pay for life and Lady Catelyn Stark was nothing but willing to give her life for his, the moment Brienne of Tarth managed to bring her personality back.)

As it is, what he knows is that more than a year after the Frey’s betrayal he is standing in front of Winterfell and he prays, _prays_ , his brother will be willing to hear him out and will not decide he is a pretender. 

Jon Snow (or, better, Stark, although he purposely refuses to call himself that) turns out to do a lot more than just hear him out; his suspicion lasts exactly first four seconds of their meeting before Jon crosses the distance between them and practically wraps himself around Robb and Robb hasn’t realized how much he missed his brother until they are hugging and he hasn’t felt this _alright_ for a terribly long time and so he doesn’t even try to tell Jon that it is horrible how easy he believed him and just holds onto him stronger. 

-

“There is someone you should see,” Jon says after what feels both like seconds and hours. His voice is soft and sad and disbelieving, and his fingers haven’t stopped touching Robb’s shoulder as if he is afraid Robb might disappear if he stops touching him. (Robb promises himself to never tell him he kind of fears the same.)

Still, the King in the North (and bless the Old Gods and the New, Robb thinks as he was praying his will would be honoured) leads him through the corridors of castle that Robb once used to rule and that now feels almost foreign.

(Later, he might wonder how Jon decided to lead him this way the first. He expected to be led to Sansa, maybe, he knows Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister managed to bring her home, or to Rickon, perhaps, who as Robb has found out on his way to Winterfell has been retrieved from the White Harbour.)

Theon Greyjoy looks different from how Robb remembers him. (And, truly, Robb remembers him with a slightly disturbing clarity.)

He is a lot paler and he has lost a terrifying amount of weight and he is missing a few fingers on his hands and from the way he winces as he stands up, on his feet too, and his hair is _white_ and Robb has spent his sweet time contemplating storming the Winterfell and personally beheading him after he has learnt of his brothers’ supposed death, but he has never, ever, ever, wanted this. He had told Bolton to stop, hadn’t he?

Theon Greyjoy also takes a shocked breath when he notices him after bowing lightly to Jon. (Robb kind of winces also from seeing that, because he doesn’t remember Theon ever bowing to anyone.)

Unlike Jon, he doesn’t move, he just stares at Robb, his eyes wide and shocked and hopeful, and he bites his lower lip and Robb can see the broken remnants of teeth in place where the once healthy ones used to be and _what in the Seven hells has happened to him_?

“Can it be outside?” Theon asks him softly when Jon leaves and closes the door behind him.

Robb blinks at him a few times.

“Can what be outside?” he says.

Theon looks at him as if he is crazy.

“You have come to take your revenge on me, haven’t you? That’s why you are here.” He smiles a small, crooked and teethless smile and Robb wants to ask _who did this to you and are they dead or can I have the pleasure_ and he doesn’t. “It’s your right and I will be only thankful when you finally take my head and I know I have no right to ask, but I would be very thankful, if you let me die outside.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Robb says, softly and he wonders when he has come to that decision, but then again, he is not Robb Stark anymore and Jon hasn’t executed Theon and, truth to be told, the idea of him dying makes Robb feel sick.

“Oh,” Theon says, his voice suddenly fragile. “I thought… I thought, if Jon brought you- I’ve never imagined _both_ of you.”

Robb forces himself to swallow bile.

“I am real,” he says. “And I am not going to kill you.”

He crosses the distance between them and gently wraps his fingers around Theon’s wrist, so fragile and thin it makes him want to scream, mostly to prove to him his own existence and Theon shudders violently and then he almost breaks down in front of him and Robb swears softly and pulls him into a hug.

“You should hate me,” Theon says into his shoulder.

“I know,” Robb agrees. “But it seems I am horrible at doing things I _should_.”

Like dying, he doesn’t say. Boltons and Freys might find out soon enough whether he mentions it or not; he isn't sure if he wants people to know he is alive yet, but he will certainly make sure Walder Frey will know, not that he’ll have chance to tell anyone.

-

Weeks pass.

Robb is reunited with Sansa (and gods, hasn’t she grown up?) and he purposely does not put her into a list of people he has failed. He would like to, but after having been forbidden to do just that by Jon and Rickon _and_ Bran, he isn't too surprised when she looks at him, her eyes happy and serious at the same time, and forbids him from doing it too.

He is also reunited with his mother's knight, and more disturbingly, with Jaime Lannister. Brienne of Tarth looks tired and sad and guilty, but then again, she did _kill_ his mother, after all, not that Robb is going to blame her for it, not when Catelyn asked her to and when his mother was murdered by Roose Bolton and Brienne mostly allowed her to rest. (The reasoning feels shady, at the very least, but he's not going to belittle his mother's choice.) Jaime Lannister seems to be honest enough when he tells him his sister went completely crazy and beyond saving and _he will not deal with any other Aerys Targaryen, ever again_. He is also looking at Lady Brienne in a way that tells Robb everything he wants to know and if Jon trusts the man, then it’s good enough for him, too.

That leaves the _situation_ with Theon. (Robb learns enough from Jon and from Jeyne Poole and he knows there is Ramsay Bolton currently residing in Winterfell’s dungeons, because Jon has been waiting with the execution until Stannis arrives again, so that they can do this the right way, or what passes for the right way in these circumstances.) 

A tiny part of him, the one Theon agrees with, probably, screams at him to just let him drown in his misery and guilt. Robb tells that part to shut up. He doesn’t think either of them is ever going to get over what happened fully, but he is too tired, and truth to be told, too above caring what is proper, to let it stop him and so he keeps looking for Theon when he doesn’t show up in the mornings and he asks him to join him in the weirwood and Theon keeps looking at him as if he thinks Robb lost his mind but also as if he was given all nameday’s presents at once and Robb spends months trying to not comment on it, which is possibly the reason, why he makes his next move as spontaneous as he does.

-

They sit together in the weirwood, as they do every day.

“Marry me,” Robb says and at that Theon does look at him, his eyes wide.

“You don’t have to marry me to punish me for what I did. I mean, there’s ways and ways without lowering yourself,” he says eventually, his voice so very weak and while Robb is perfectly fine with his brother being in charge of Winterfell and as such also in charge of all the beheading, he thinks he might want to ask for a minute or twenty alone with one Ramsay Snow.

Still, he doesn’t really _touch_ Theon, yes, but he moves closer and when he speaks up, he forces himself to sound even softer.

“I do not believe you deserve punishment. And even if I did, I would never do it this way. And as far as _lowering_ myself goes, I believe I have shown you enough times I do not care what someone else thinks is the right thing for me.” _Except that one time when you saved my brother and I treated you horribly, because I felt guilty for loving you_ , he doesn’t say, not yet. He will and soon enough, because he still feels terrible because of it and because Theon deserves to know it, but given what he has just asked, he thinks he only wants to open one complicated topic at once.

Theon doesn’t say anything then, he just stares at the ground, his shoulders hunched, and Robb sighs and looks around. They are alone, Jon is in the castle dealing with the bannermen and Sansa is with Brienne and ser Jaime and they are trying to come with a plan of finding Arya and almost no one else knows he exists, which means he is feeling freer than he has in years.

The thing is, he is really happy to be alive. He really, really, is. But as it is right now, he thinks, things are way easier if everyone outside Winterfell believes him dead and the truth is, he doesn’t mind it half as much as he thinks he should.

“If anyone finds out I am alive, it will complicate Jon’s position a lot,” Robb finds himself saying a Theon _still_ isn't looking at him but at least he doesn’t look as terrified as he did moments ago and Robb presses closer, his fingers carding through hair which is a _lot_ less dark than it should and Robb is absolutely going to ask for some time with Ramsay Snow. “He is going to be questioned, his claim is going to be questioned, everything he has managed will be considered in a negative way, he might be called a pretender and-“ he hesitates. “I don’t want that to happen. He did hell of a good job as a King- better than I did, I suppose.”

For a moment, Theon looks like he would like to protest, but then he clearly changes his mind and says nothing.

“My point is,” Robb continues, “that I probably _should_ tell people that I am alive, and I probably _should_ go and take over the fighting for the North. And the thing is, I think the war is going to be successful either way, because I don’t intend to give up on Jon and I don’t intend to sit here and do _nothing_. I am going to offer him all my skills as a tactician. But I want to be allowed to do the selfish thing for a change.”

“That’s understandable,” Theon says quietly and Robb can practically _hear_ the my lord that almost went to the end of that sentence. “But why would you-“ he coughs, purposely not looking at Robb when he finishes. “Why would you want to marry _me_?”

“Maybe because you are one of the bravest people I’ve ever met in my whole life – don’t even try to argue, you were terrified and you had every reason to be and you saved Jeyne Poole anyway. Don’t even _try_ to tell me it wasn’t brave. And that’s not even all of it, Theon.” (He ignores the way Theon winces at the mention of his own name for now – hopefully, he’ll have the rest of his life to fix that.) “You are the one person in my life who somehow always managed to make me smile, no matter what. You are an excellent archer and you have perfected the art of pretending that you don’t care about anything, but you care about plenty of things, you accepted a mute boy as your squire, you jumped out of that wall with Jeyne even though you could’ve returned and say she wanted to run away and maybe everyone else has decided to forget about it, but I still remember the terrified boy whom my Father brought from the Iron Islands and I liked that boy well enough but I liked the alternative better, because sometimes the way you smiled was real.”

“I-“

“I am not saying you haven’t made mistakes. But I have made my fair share of them too. Does that mean I deserve horrible things? Does that mean I deserved what the Freys did to me?”

Theon stares at him, horrified on his account.

“Of course not!” he exclaims, clearly annoyed enough to forget he should (or thinks he should) be deferential. “Of course you didn’t deserve it Robb, you chose that girl’s honour over yours, that didn’t give the Freys right to-“

Robb smiles at him, sad. “So why do you think you deserved what Snow did to you when all you did was choosing your family over me?”

“I should have chosen you,” Theon whispers, all energy gone from him but he hasn’t winced _that_ hard at the mention of Snow’s name, so Robb is going to take that.

“You still can,” he says, softly. “Choose me, I mean. If you want to.”

Theon stares at him for the longest time.

“You really are serious,” he whispers eventually and Robb smiles a little.

“Has there ever been a time when I wasn’t, when it concerned you?” Robb answers, maybe too easily, but he is intending to spend the rest of their lives dealing with their nightmares, he thinks he can afford to treat this at least partially with ease.

“Yes,” Theon says, his voice soft and slightly trembling and Robb is so surprised by that he doesn’t even manage to react for a second or two.

“Yes?” he asks and somehow Theon manages to smile at him, a tiny smile that doesn’t show his teeth but a smile nevertheless.

“Yes, I will marry you. I mean- unless you changed your mind or-“

“I didn’t,” Robb says and then he leans closer and he hesitantly and slowly enough that Theon could stop him, wraps his arms around Theon’s waist and Theon melts against him and Robb, well. Robb decides he can ask Jon to witness their wedding vows later, because he isn't going to interrupt _this_ for an entire world.

THE END


End file.
